Recent Opinions

It’s time to call all of these hate acts against people of color what they are: acts of terrorism. We must stop tiptoeing around this word, terrorism, which makes us uncomfortable, because the use of the word “terrorism” to describe the actions of part of the American population will make its perpetrators aware of our hypocrisy.

Growing up, I longed for people to view me as intelligent. I loved being associated with the adjective smart, and I, in turn, also complimented others’ intelligences freely. It wasn’t until later that I realized how damaging and invalidating that simple praise could be.

OPINIONS

Stanford must secure the campus wireless network

On Wednesday, the University’s Information Security Office (ISO) blocked Internet access from people who had not watched the required 15 minute video about computer security.

While it is important to raise awareness about information security issues, requiring everyone on campus to watch a video about computer security is ironic when Stanford has not taken an important measure that would substantially increase information security on campus: securing the Stanford wireless network.

When you connect your computer to the Internet through Stanford’s unsecured wireless network, all of the communication between your computer and the websites you visit is broadcasted unencrypted through the air. What this means is that everybody else in your vicinity can also see which websites you are visiting and much of the information you send them.

(Stanford’s wireless network isn’t “open,” in that the Stanford routers won’t let just anybody connect to the Internet, which is why you had to register your computer the first time you connected to the Internet. But it is unencrypted, allowing people to read the traffic).

Unfortunately, there is no way to detect whether somebody is listening in, the same way that you can’t tell who’s listening to a radio broadcast. And the ability to eavesdrop on your web-surfing is not limited to elite hackers; anybody can download free software like Wireshark to make listening in easy.

Stanford’s unsecured wireless network is problematic for two reasons: It compromises our security and allows our privacy to be violated.

Transmitting our unencrypted information through the air makes it easier for identity thieves to steal our information. It also makes us more vulnerable to “man in the middle” attacks, in which a malicious machine pretends to be the router we wish to communicate with.

And even if we could trust every single member of the Stanford community to behave honestly, we would still be vulnerable to these attacks from Stanford machines that have been compromised by crackers and from malicious users outside the Stanford community.

An unsecured wireless network also allows our privacy to be violated. Many people assume that nobody else can find out which websites they visit, a common misconception that the ISO video made no attempt to clear up.

Especially for those of us who live on campus, it is reasonable to expect that webpages we visit in the privacy of our campus homes are as private as the conversations we have or the books we read there. Using Stanford’s wireless network, however, allows strangers to see most of our Internet activity.

Fortunately, some sites, like Facebook, Gmail and the websites of major banks, encrypt our communication with them through the HTTPS protocol.

But exploitation continues to be found due to flawed implementations of security measures, even at major websites. Two years ago, for example, software developer Eric Butler released an add-on to Firefox called Firesheep that took advantage of the fact that many websites, including Facebook, Amazon and Twitter, sent the cookies stored on our computers unencrypted over the network. Firesheep, which is still freely available, allowed a malicious user to crack into our accounts on these websites, effectively stealing our identity.

But despite this clear warning sign, Stanford did not implement wireless encryption, which would have prevented this session hijacking attack.

The fact is that we do not know where the next major security breach will come from or how bad it will be. What we do know, however, is that adding an extra layer of security can prevent security breaches in other layers from harming us. As the ISO video itself says, “It’s good to use multiple defenses because there is no secret recipe for staying 100% safe.”

Having an encrypted wireless network won’t stop someone from doing a MitM attack. An attacker could just spoof the wireless network with their own or even ARP poison the real network to redirect traffic to them. The same applies when you go to some cafe and use their “free” wifi.

Anonymous

This article is misinformed. There has been a secured campus wireless network for months now, called “eduroam”. Furthermore, IT Services is planning to roll out another secured campus-wide wireless network called “Stanford Secure” in the Spring.

Sam King

WPA won’t protect against other people who know the password. There is free software that lets you use firesheep over WPA, for instance.

Submissions

Letters to the editor: E-mail Editor in Chief Joseph Beyda at eic@stanforddaily.com. Signed letters only. Students and alums, please include class year for publication. Non-students, please include city or University affiliation for publication. All: please include evening telephone number (not for publication). Word limit for letters: 500.

Op-eds: E-mail Managing Editor of Opinions Aimee Trujillo at opinions@stanforddaily.com. Students and alums, please include class year for publication. Non-students, please include city or University affiliation for publication. All: please include evening telephone number (not for publication). Word limit for op-eds: 700.

Opinions Columnists

Nick Ahamed The Muckraker

Mark Bessen The Fault in Our Systems

Winston ShiA More Perfect Union

Mysia AndersonEvolving

Johnathan Bowes Super Tuesday

Aimee TrujilloSuper Tuesday

Veronica Anorve Super Tuesday

Neil ChaudharyDouble Take

Mina ShahWednesdays in the World

Raven JiangQuoth the Raven

That’s what we said

Until we build a culture where mental health is urgently and openly discussed — and we are well on our way — the demand for CAPS will only grow. Students, accustomed to some of the best student services in the world, expect better from what is supposed to be the University’s last line of defense. —Vol. 247 Editorial Board